This month made it exactly one year after the current leadership of various sporting federations emerged and were inaugurated to steer the ship of Nigerian Sports. President of one of the outstanding federations, Nigerian Volleyball Federation (NVBF), Engr Musa Nimrod, stated in clear terms how his board has been on top of their games.
From when we took over last year This journey is our journey.
This federation is our federation. No one person can claim the success story of this one year.
It is a collective effort, driven by collective will for the betterment of our very beautiful sport.
One year ago, we were given the mandate to steer the ship of volleyball affairs in Nigeria.
It was a memorable event and the beauty of that experience still remains the diversity of the people that made up the board.
It is a thing of worthy celebration to have people from different socio cultural and professional background coming together for the single purpose of promoting, developing and managing volleyball.
It has been a year, and we can look back to see where we are coming from and how it brought us where we are and to also see how where we find ourselves will lead us to where we are going. To the glory of the Almighty we have registered positive strides in our quest to move volleyball to a new level in Nigeria.
Open camp initiative One of the great initiatives of this board is the all out open camp to select players for national camps.
This was done in phases and categories, whereby male and female of different age grades converged in Kaduna for a thorough scrutiny by seasoned coaches, whom were also invited to help make the selection.
This is the first time such initiative was put to use in inviting players to national camp.
Continental breakthrough With very little or no budgetary allocation and within a very short time of our administration, we were faced with the challenge of sending a team to African women championship.
First is the qualifier to be hosted in Abidjan, in Cotedevoire; After a rigorous effort by many actors, we made it to Abidjan and then the competition proper in Cameroon.
It was a memorable experience, saddled with challenges upon challenges yet at the end with the sacrifice of our coaches, the will of our players and the determination of our board Nigeria was represented and presently ranked 7th in Africa.
The men’s national team were also in Cairo Egypt, where they made us proud, despite the itches associated with the camping due to scarce and limited funding.
We celebrate their gallantry.
Our national team appearance was not at its best, and one of the needful is to seek for a sports gear manufacturing company and sign a deal.
After rigorous meetings and discussions, a deal was signed with AFA sports.
And our male and female national teams were kitted with national colours branded jerseys.
Exploring Beach volleyball There was a time, one can count the number of Beach volleyball players in Nigeria, of course they made us proud, but the opportunity was limited. To increase participation we agreed to host a national Beach volleyball open camp, which set the pace for scores of young players turning up for trials. This aided us to select players for African and world youth championships.
With very little resources and determined staff and coaches the aforementioned competition was a success.
This was held in Abuja where young and vibrant beach volleyball players converged from all over the country to compete in different categories including U17,U19 and U21.
There players were selected for the African Youths games.
National honours et al In order to sustain the glory of Beach volleyball in Nigeria, we have worked logical inclusion of Beach Volleyball in the youths games.
With a supportive federation, the Nigeria Customs female team participated in the club championship in Egypt.
This was hosted in Lagos and proved to be successful whereas both Nigeria’s and other West African clubs competed.
This is one of the main mandates of this present board, to break the jinx and set up a working league system in the country.
Today we have successfully hosted two phases of the league with all clubs knowing where they belong: Either Division One or the Premier league, which is still in process.
Nigeria won the hosting right of the African boys U21, which is scheduled for Abuja in this quarter.
Our boys are already in the selection camp for the forthcoming event.
In the same vain, our girls are also in the selection camp ongoing where a formidable team will be selected to go to African girls U20 in Kenya this same quarter.
The Nigeria youth team made us all proud after qualifying for the African Youths games coming up in Algiers Algeria in a week from now.
Marketing strategies, funding issues We have set up a website for easy accessibility and dissemination of information.
@wwwngrvbf.org.
Funding is actually a phenomenon bedevilling almost all the sports in the country.
Volleyball in particular is like an orphan without a single sponsor and very little budget.
We are always faced with great responsibilities.
Mostly our international outing is a race against time.
Without cash, the federation needs to source for money for tickets, accommodation for campers, transport allowance, feeding as well as other allowance due for players and coaches. It was never an easy process. Though we have started a league ,which is in its gestation period, we are yet to have a sponsor or sponsors. This implies that the league, so far, was a product of great sacrifice and service from volleyball enthusiasts in different capacity.
I want to use this medium to celebrate all those who made it possible for the two phases to hold so far.
Volleyball is an indoor game, it is our desire to see that most competitions are played indoors rather than outdoors.
Both national competitions and championships. The era of hosting competition in open court is gradually phasing out and we are hoping to see its end in the very soonest time. Building capacity The federation is yet to organise coaches’ capacity building seminar, though our auxiliary bodies, like the NVCA and NVRA have tried in different times to boost the capacity of their members. Under the supervision of the federation, the Nigeria Volleyball Referees association and the Nigeria Volleyball Coaches Association were able to elect executives who are working assiduously for the success of our programs and projects .
We can boast of a cordial working relationship between the three arms of the federation, which include, Coaches association, Referees association and the players as well. This became necessary to inject or groom fresh and young talents into the fold of the national team.
With this we hope to create a new philosophy of playing the game with the aim of redefining the essence of personal commitment and collective dedication to the cause.
We however celebrate and appreciate all the players’ whether old or new.
Grassroots developmental approach It is a thing of great opportunity for the young players as one of our cardinal purpose is grassroots development.
There is a plan to set up a structure that will pave way for an effective Volleyball Talent Reproductive System ( VTRS) this is a plan aimed at setting up a framework under the federation which will be organised and coordinated by seasoned coaches who have the interest of grassroots sports as their specialization.
We look forward to having corporate partners that will play a key role in branding our events and supporting our activities both nationally and internationally.
Though we are still modifying it, but we all look forward to a time whereby the league will grow into a professional system whereby both players and officials will benefit with handsome reward and international exchange.
It has been long when we had the FIVB graded coaches course hosted by Nigeria.
It is our earnest desire to see that such international courses are organised to improve the coaching abilities of our players and officials.
Volleyball is a team game, to achieve victory then all parts must play a part! It is my earnest prayer that we can unite our purpose and pool our individual resources and abilities together to achieve a better future for our beautiful game.